At the Court of the Amîr: A Narrative

by John Alfred Gray

We went through the ravine where the water dashes down and enters a tunnel in the rock. Further on, a camel in the crush was pushed over the edge and fell with his load down the ravine. Its young one sprang after it. The Amîr passing some time afterwards with his guard, halted to look at the place. The horse of one of the guard was frightened, and backed away from the precipice: the man, incensed, cut it violently with the cruel doubled-lashed Afghan whip; the horse gave a bound forward, and he and his rider disappeared over the edge.

From here the road led over high mountains, and it was very cold and rainy. I had to have occasional doses of brandy from the medical stores in order to keep going, and at one place His Highness, when he arrived, was kind enough to stop at my tent to enquire how I was. The next day, he sent his palanquin to me, and I was borne along on the shoulders of four sturdy Afghans. I was not a heavy burden, unfortunately, and they hurried along up hill and down dale, over rocks and through defiles at a pace that was to me, in my feebleness, terrifying.

We camped at Gardandiwal. This was the occasion I referred to some way back, on which I gave a banquet to a dozen men—the relays of palanquin bearers—which cost me rather less than sixpence a head. I ought to say that the men refused at first, lest the fact might reach His Highness’s ears and displease him.

Here His Highness sent me some specimens to test for coal. I am not a geologist, but, as far as I could judge, from my rough tests, there was, in the specimens he sent me, some coal and a good deal of stone.

After this I became very ill, and His Highness sent several times to enquire how I was. One day he sent for the Armenian and gave him directions as to the diet I should have. He hoped I should be better on the third day from then, as he wished me to ride into Kabul with him. He said that brandy was not good for me, as it tended to produce congestion of the liver.

The next day we arrived at Kalai Kasi, within a few miles of Kabul, and Mr. Pyne and the two other English engineers rode out from Kabul to welcome His Highness. Afterwards they came to my tent. I was very pleased to see them. They were the first English I had seen since Captain Griesbach left Mazar, more than a year before. They were very jolly, but their vigorous energy was, to a poor debilitated mortal, rather overpowering. I remember Pyne enquired why I sat on the ground: I explained that I had no chair, it was broken. He also asked why I did not have my hair cut: I told him there was no barber, and that we had been on the march a month and a half. After dinner they rode back with a guard to Kabul.

Kindness of the Amîr.

Early the next morning His Highness held a Durbar, and at five o’clock I girded up my loins, mounted a horse, and rode to His Highness’s quarters. Outside the khirgar, or wigwam, where His Highness slept, there was erected a large red and white awning. Under this, in the shade, were several chairs and two or three portable tables covered with fruit and flowers. Several people, Officers and Courtiers, were sitting there, and I joined them. Soon, we heard that His Highness had risen, and I was sent for into the khirgar. His Highness was sitting on the couch, and on a little table by him were some biscuits and fruit, and a cup of tea. He enquired very kindly after my health, suggesting various remedies, and gave me advice as regards diet. He would not hear of my riding on horseback into Kabul, but said I must be carried in the palanquin. He said many kind things, and finally gave me “Rûkhsat,” or permission to depart, for I was feeble. I returned to the tent till we were ready to start.

The lanes, cornfields, fruit trees, and general freshness and greenness of the suburbs of Kabul reminded me of England, and were most grateful to the eye after the dusty barrenness of Mazar.

Presently we turned off from the Kabul road; and some way off I saw a hill with crowds of people on it. There were rows of spectators on each side of the road leading to it. Evidently the grand reception was not to be in the town. I had hoped to get away somewhere and rest.